News/

Five Lingering Questions About Ronni Chasen's Murder

CTRL-C or CMD-C, then press Enter.Click/tap elsewhere to exit, or press ESC.

Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images

To say we're still confused by the Ronni Chasen murder is a painful understatement.

Ronni's whole horrifying saga plays like an episode of Law & Order: Hollywood, except one thing is missing: a resolution. And while we have hundreds of questions about this par-tick whodunit (ya know, like what beef Ronni actually had with her niece), we rounded up our top five queries that most certainly would help solve the case if they were answered:

1. What did Harold Smith have to do with it? Was Harold Smith a hit man...or just plain crazy? While those close to Ronni (and the Beverly Hills cops) now lean toward the latter, he was a momentary "person of interest" in the case, following a tip from America's Most Wanted. One neighbor even claims Harold told her that he "murdered that bitch."

But did he have anything to do with it? Unlikely. And we may never know, seeing as Harold shot and killed himself when police tried to serve him a search warrant. Seems suspicious (duh), but cops are now saying that he may have just been looking for 15 minutes of effed-up fame.

2. Who benefited in Ronni's updated will? Or was there even a new will at all? The will on record, which shafts the aforementioned niece by only leaving her 10 bucks, is from 1994, and some claim another will was drafted in 2006 (yet no record of this will seems to exist). But Martha Smilgis, who was coexecutor of Chasen's 1994 will, says Ronni talked about "rearranging" things in her will just two months before her murder.

That's not to say that Ronni ever actually redid her last will and testament, but if an updated will exists, we wonder what changed? And even if it doesn't, what exactly made Ronni want to redo it so close to what would eventually be her death?

3. Was Ronni paying off someone's gambling debt? One of the many (and more realistic) theories behind Ronni's murder is that she was involved in paying off debts for a loved one. While no one has been able to track down any seedy payments and no family member has 'fessed to the debt, pals close to Chasen think this biz—or some other serious kind of money situation—may have gone bad, which led to Ronni getting killed.

Even if Ronni didn't pay off someone else's debt with her life, her history seems to indicate she'd been targeted before by someone who knew her business well, including a robbery at gunpoint years ago where hidden jewelry was stolen. Might the two incidents be connected?

4. Was Ronni a victim of ongoing gang violence? Many think that Ronni's murder was premeditated, with a hit man hired to take her out as she drove home from a ritzy Hollywood premiere. Recent reports from the Daily Beast claim R.C.'s death may have been random, after all, and was another gang-related crime in a wave that also included two similar gun-related incidents a week before and after Ronni's murder.

"No, there are no reports of these types of crimes in the city of Beverly Hills," says BHPD Sgt. Shan Davis. Hmmm, consider us perplexed on this one. The police may pooh-pooh it, but we're not entirely sure we believe them.

5. Who killed Ronni Chasen? There may be hundreds of questions, but the numero uno Q is: Who killed Ronni? Was it a hit man with "cop-killer" bullets? Did Ronni know the killer? And did Ronni know the motive behind her own murder?

Your information may be shared with other NBCUniversal businesses and used to better tailor our services and advertising to you. For more details about how we use your information, see our Privacy Policy. If you are located outside of the U.S., your information may be transferred to, processed and used in the U.S.